For weeks, Fatima Zayyoun has tended to her daughter Ivana, whose bandaged fragile physique is in a Beirut hospital after an Israeli strike close to their residence engulfed her in flames.
On the Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui, residence to the nation’s solely burns unit, 35-year-old Zayyoun continues to be in shock, 5 weeks after a 3rd of her daughter’s physique was burned in a September 23 strike on south Lebanon.
Ivana, who will flip two subsequent month, lies close by, her arms, legs, head and face all swathed in bandages.
“I used to be making breakfast whereas Ivana was enjoying together with her (seven-year-old) sister Rahaf within the yard exterior when the air strike hit close to us,” Zayyoun informed AFP.
“A hearth broke out and my two daughters had been burned,” she mentioned, including that she shortly pulled them into the home and “threw them out of the kitchen window” into the aspect of the road that was not ablaze.
The household rushed the ladies to a hospital within the Chouf space south of the capital.
Rahaf was discharged after three weeks after making progress in her restoration, however Ivana was transferred to the Geitaoui hospital in japanese Beirut due to the severity of her accidents.
“I really feel I am in a film. I have never settled in a single place but — I transfer from one hospital to a different,” Zayyoun mentioned.
Within the paediatric ward, Ivana retains a doll close by however hardly ever reaches for it.
Her scarred and bandaged face appears terrified any time somebody enters her room.
“Ivana is a hero as a result of she defeated the warfare by surviving,” mentioned Ziad Sleiman, the plastic and reconstructive surgeon charged together with her case.
“She’s a hero as a result of she is slowly recovering from her damage,” he informed AFP. Between 35 and 40 p.c of her physique suffered third-degree burns.
– ‘Youngest affected person’ –
Within the weeks since Ivana arrived, docs have carried out pores and skin grafts along with recurrently washing and dressing her wounds.
“She is the youngest affected person to reach on the hospital, however she’s the strongest,” mentioned Sleiman. Ivana will inevitably be left with lasting scars.
She just isn’t the one affected person recovering from Israeli strikes. Geitaoui’s burns unit has admitted a surge of sufferers because the Israel-Hezbollah warfare erupted on September 23.
They arrive with burns and shrapnel accidents throughout their our bodies, Sleiman mentioned.
The inflow has pressured the hospital to assign burn sufferers to the paediatric ward to make extra room.
They embrace Mohammed Ibrahim, an 11-year-old in a room beside Ivana’s.
He’s being cared for by his aunt as a result of his mom is receiving remedy in one other hospital.
Ibrahim and his mom had been among the many victims of a September 29 strike close to the southern metropolis of Sidon that hit their residence.
Greater than 70 individuals had been killed in that assault that toppled a six-storey residential advanced in Ain el Delb.
The lifeless included Mohammed’s father and brother, however the 11-year-old would not know that but.
– ‘At all times full’ –
The burns unit on the Geitaoui hospital, the place solely probably the most extreme instances are transferred, is a snapshot of the horrible toll within the Israel-Hezbollah warfare.
In a single room, a burn sufferer lies hooked to a respirator, solely a part of his swollen face seen.
In one other, a person is absolutely bandaged — with nothing exhibiting however his hair.
A curtain is drawn over a 3rd room, the place a girl screamed as nurses modified her bandages.
“A lot of the accidents are third-degree and even fourth-degree burns,” Sleiman mentioned. Some victims had been fully “charred”.
He mentioned the burns unit has admitted round 70 sufferers since handheld communications units utilized by Hezbollah exploded final month, killing 39 and wounding virtually 3,000 others.
With restricted capability, the hospital has struggled to manage.
Sleiman mentioned he feared a scarcity of medical provides if the warfare continues, describing the accidents as “extreme” and indicative of the violence.
The hospital’s medical director Naji Abi Rached mentioned sufferers require remedy for 4 to 6 weeks. Many arrive with burns masking as much as 60 p.c of their our bodies.
“We’ve elevated our capability from 9 to 25 beds” to deal with burns sufferers, he mentioned.
However “the division is at all times full. When a mattress turns into empty, there’s one other affected person able to occupy it instantly,” he mentioned.
Within the paediatric ward, Zayyoun informed AFP it’s a “miracle” her two daughters are nonetheless alive.
Earlier than she was admitted, “Ivana couldn’t transfer her legs or open her eyes,” she mentioned.
“This warfare ought to by no means have occurred.”
